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Title: [James S. Mason & Co. ,108 North Front Street, challenge blacking, ink &c. manufactory] [graphic] / J. Queen, del.
Description: Location: 108 North Front Street, later 138-140 North Front St., Title from accompanying manuscript note., Wainwright retrospective conversion project., Select link below to view a digital image.
Creator: Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886 artist., creator
Date: ca. 1852.
Location: http://www.lcpgraphics.org/wainwright/W198.htm, Library Company of Philadelphia Print Dept. *W198 [P.2075]

Title: [James S. Mason & Co., 108 North Front Street, challenge blacking, ink &c. manufactory]
Description: Advertisement showing the five-story brick and granite building adorned with a sign reading "Blacking" on its roof at 108, i.e., 138-140 North Front Street. A patron opens the entrance door of the storefront as he peers at a large illustrated print on display in an adjacent window. Above the window adorned with the print (illustrated with a man, boy, and dog), a couple is visible in an open double-sided glass door on the second floor. In front of the building, a laborer unloads a horse-drawn dray as a family in winter attire approaches from a nearby corner. Also shows a hoist on the side of the storefront and partial views of neighboring buildings. Mason & Co. occupied the building following its completion in 1851 and tenanted the site until 1919. The building, built 1850-1851, was demolished in 1973., Title from accompanying manuscript note., Date from Poulson inscription: Oct. 1856., Wainwright suggests date of circa 1852., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 404, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited.
Creator: Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
Date: [October 1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W198 [P.2075]

Title: Mason's challenge blacking. James S. Mason & Co., nos. 138 & 140 North Front Street, Philadelphia
Description: Advertisement depicting a "shoe blacking" competition between two African American shoe shiners to promote the manufactory of blacking established in 1832 by James S. Mason. Shows two African American men, portrayed in racist caricature, holding a brush, a canister of "Mason's" blacking, and a boot, while they dance on a table. An African American man fiddler sits on a stool and plays. In the foreground, a white man holds an oversized boot. A white shoe shine boy, his pack on his back, stands behind an older man holding his arm as he points at his reflection in the boot. In the left background, a troop of white Union soldiers marches in behind a parade marshal adorned in "M" insignias. The men carry a banner reading "Mason's (Original) Challenge Blacking (Philadelphia)," as well as boots, and signs spelling "M-A-S-O-N." In the right background, a crowd of spectators, including figures likely representing Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and possibly France, stand and watch the competition attentively. Scene also includes boxes of Mason's Challenge Blacking. Following the death of Mason in 1888, his son Richard assumed the business which was in operation into the 20th century., Title from item., Date inferred from directory listings for the artist and engravers., Attributed by cataloger to Francis H. Schell, but possibly by Frederick B. Schell., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Schell, Francis H., 1834-1909, artist
Date: [ca. 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Ph Pr - 11x14 - Advertisements - M [P.2013.51]

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